Fellow jurors who will award a $30,000 prize to the winner of the New Currents Asian film competition include film studies professor Dina Iordanova, French philosopher Jacques Ranciere, Indian actress Suhasini Maniratnam, and Bong Joon-ho, Korean director of “The Host” and “The Snowpiercer”.

The festival has also enlisted other celebrities. This year’s opening ceremony will be hosted by Japanese actor Ken Watanabe (”Inception,” “The Last Samurai”), and Korean actress Moon So-ri (“Peppermint Candy,” “Oasis”).

In its 19th year, BIFF has named local director Jung-Jin-woo, a well-known producer-director, as the focus of its Korean Cinema Retrospective. Jung made his mark in the social drama genre in the 1960s, dealing with the division of the Korean peninsula and class barriers. He was also well-known for depicting women’s lives on the verge of crisis in the tumultuous 70’s in South Korea.

Eight films from his body of over 50 films will be screened at BIFF including “Does Cuckoo Cry at Night” (1980) and his earlier “Border Line”(1964).